The final tally of 2024's tourist numbers was published on Monday and it showed a total for the Balearics of 18,735,675. Of these, there were 15,311,569 foreign tourists, Spain having registered 3,424,105.
It was another record year in terms of numbers of tourists, exceeding 2023 by around 900,000. An increase of just under five per cent, this was, however, the lowest percentage rise among Spain's main tourism regions (Andalusia, the Canaries, Catalonia, Madrid, Valencia are the others).
A majority of tourism markets registered increases. The highest percentage, 18.7 to 1,829,242, was for 'other European countries'. France rose by 14.8% to 1,122,661, while Germany was up by 9.2% to 5,029,755, the first time that five million has been exceeded. 'Other countries in the world', including for instance the American market, increased by 6.4% to 787,419.
As ever, the three dominant markets were Germany, Spain and the UK, but both Spain and the UK recorded decreases. Spain's was marginal - minus 0.2% - while the UK drop was the greatest among the four markets that fell in 2024. This was by -3.2% to 3,575,603. While this wasn't a big fall for the whole year, certain months did show quite significant decreases, e.g. July with -10.1%. In 2023 UK tourism in the Balearics increased by 9.8%.
The other markets that dropped in 2024 were the Netherlands (-1.9% to 701,921) and Switzerland (-0.6% to 494,056).
In December, one of the quietest months of the year, there were 296,261 tourists, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%. Indicative of flights in the winter, Germany was up 31.5% to 99,895, while the UK rose 3.5% to 17,287. Spanish tourism was slightly up to 113,815.
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Germans at the top. No surprises there. If "British Bars" want to stay in business it may be a good idea to start learning some languages. Spanish and German would be a good start.